Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, ‘once in a generation’...

1of3Clemson Tigers quarterback Trevor Lawrence walks on the stage for interviews at the College Football Playoff National Championship media day at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif. on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019.Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

2of3Clemson Tigers quarterback Trevor Lawrence meets with sports reporters at the College Football Playoff National Championship media day at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif. on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019.Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

Clemson has a busload of NFL prospects ready to play in the College Football Playoff title game Monday night — and one rock star.

The Tigers’ strength coaches call freshman Trevor Lawrence “Stick” — “cause I’m so skinny.” His teammates call him “Sunshine” after the long-blond-haired quarterback of the movie “Remember the Titans.”

Other people call Lawrence the best quarterback prospect to come out of high school — ever. He’s 6-foot-6 and blessed with a powerful arm, extraordinary field vision and remarkable poise for somebody who turned 19 in October.

“You can talk about his physical skills all you want,” ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit said. “To me it’s the ability, in this offense, especially when they go up-tempo, the ability not to make mental mistakes, process the coverage, get out of a bad play into a good play. That is just unbelievable. … He’s a once-in-a-generation type of guy.”

When Alabama beat Clemson 24-6 in last year’s Sugar Bowl, a CFP semifinal, the Crimson Tide defense didn’t have to fear the downfield pass. Now, with Lawrence and deep threats like Tee Higgins, Amari Rodgers and Justyn Ross, they do, and that could open up the rest of the offense.

Coming out of Cartersville, Ga., where he was 52-2 as a starter, Lawrence was rated the No. 1 prep prospect in the nation, regardless of position, by 247Sports and Rivals and the No. 2 player by ESPN.

He had quit baseball and basketball in favor of football in eighth grade. His hair was “really short” when he entered high school. “Then I decided to grow it out, and it stuck, so I just left it,” he said.

After picking Clemson over Georgia, he took over as the starter five games into his freshman season. He was knocked out of his first start by head and neck injuries against Syracuse. He has wowed ever since, most recently when he passed for 327 yards and three touchdowns against Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl.

Lawrence credits his unflappable nature to his Christian faith and his family. “The way I was brought up, no moment’s too big,” he said Saturday at media day at SAP Center in San Jose. “I feel like I keep myself grounded. I feel like I was made for moments like this.”

Last year he watched the Alabama-Clemson game as a high school senior, “dreaming of playing in that game,” he said. “This year I didn’t know how it was going to work out. I knew it would eventually, but I didn’t know when.”

Few people realize their dreams this quickly.

“He’s advanced, and it’s not just his ability to throw the ball,” said Alabama defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi, a former Cal player and assistant coach. “He’s got a great arm; we knew that in the recruiting process. It’s more that you can see how he’s processing things. He does a great job in seeing things from pre-snap and then post-snap, where he’s going with the ball. It’s obvious that he’s been coached well, and he knows how to operate within the scheme of their offense well.”

Naturally, Lawrence was the ACC Rookie of the Year. This season he has piled up 2,933 yards and 27 TDs against four interceptions.

“He can do it all,” said Alabama defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, the Outland Trophy winner as the top interior lineman in the country. “He can make the throws deep downfield. He can make the short throws. He can run when he needs to run. It’s amazing, and he’s got three more years of college to go.”

Well, most likely two. But he’s not eligible for the NFL draft until 2021. The pros can’t wait to get him.

“Honestly, I don’t care about all that stuff,” Lawrence said. “I just do what I can in the moment. I know I have at least a few more years of college left.”

He wears No. 16 because that was Peyton Manning’s number at Tennessee. (He wore 18 in the NFL.)

“He set such a great example his whole career, the way he played, how sharp he is, how he led those guys when he was playing,” Lawrence said. “The way he carried himself was something I look up to. He was obviously a great player, and that’s something I strive for.”

Lawrence had a chance to talk to his idol on the phone a few weeks ago. “I picked his brain a little bit,” Lawrence said.

He calls Alabama “the best defense we’ve seen up to this point, for sure.” But he said the fact Clemson has played the Tide in the CFP the past three years means the Tigers aren’t in awe of them.

“The thing that hurts (a lot of Alabama opponents) is they’re already thinking they’re going to lose before the game starts,” he said. “We have some experience playing them that will help us.”

Tom FitzGerald has been the Stanford beat writer for The San Francisco Chronicle since 2009. He also covers men’s and women’s basketball and many other Stanford sports.

He also covers motor sports in the Bay Area and wrote about the America's Cup regatta in San Francisco in 2013, during which Oracle Team USA made one of the greatest comebacks in sports history to beat Emirates Team New Zealand.

Among the many momentous games he has covered were the 49ers' victory over Dallas in the 1982 NFC Championship Game, which featured "The Catch'' by Dwight Clark, and the U.S. hockey team’s 1980 Olympic upset of the Soviet Union in Lake Placid, N.Y. At the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, he rode the bobsled run with members of the U.S. team for a first-person story. He also rode on Russell Coutts’ Oracle Team USA catamaran in 2012 and in an Indy car with legendary Mario Andretti in 2014 for other first-person stories.

For 15 years he wrote a popular sports humor column called "Top of the Sixth" (later re-titled "Open Season"). A weekly version of the column was nationally syndicated in as many as 50 daily newspapers.

He has a degree in political science from the University of Massachusetts. He lives in Benicia.